Predicting The 2013 Cannes Film Festival Lineup: Who Will Join 'The Great Gatsby' On The Croisette?

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The Playlist Staff
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The PlaylistMarch 14, 2013 at 12:03PM

On Tuesday, it was announced that Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" would open this year's Cannes Film Festival, still the most prestigious, and arguably most important event on the cinematic calendar. And today, March 14th, marks the last day on which films can be seen by the selection panel for the festival, which kicks off May 15th.

On Tuesday, it was announced that Baz Luhrmann's "The Great Gatsby" would open this year's Cannes Film Festival, still the most prestigious, and arguably most important event on the cinematic calendar. And today, March 14th, marks the last day on which films can be seen by the selection panel for the festival, which kicks off May 15th.

So aside from 'Gatsby,' what else can we expect to see at the festival? It seemed to be a good time to run down the possibilities of what might appear on the Croisette in 2013, so we've rounded up those that we think are essentially locks, along with the possibilities and slightly longer-shot candidates. Last year, we did pretty well when we made our guesses, but as always, there are films and filmmakers that are flying under our radar. Whether or not our crystal ball is accurate this year remains to be seen. Read on below, and let us know what you think -- or hope -- will be in the lineup for the 66th Cannes Film Festival.

Strong Contenders

“Behind the Candelabra” (dir. Steven Soderbergh)Cast: Matt Damon, Michael Douglas, Rob Lowe, Cheyenne Jackson, Scott BakulaGiven that he kicked off his career with a Palme d'Or for "Sex, Lies, and Videotape," it's fitting that even if Steven Soderbergh's "final" film – the Liberace biopic "Behind the Candelabra" – skips theaters in most of the world, it will still get to see the inside of a theater on the Croisette. The cable network premiered "Hemingway & Gellhorn" at the festival last year, and with Soderbergh long having said that the film was aiming for the festival, and the movie airing in the U.S. on May 26th on HBO, this looks to be a lock.

"Lowlife" (dir. James Gray)Cast: Marion Cotillard, Joaquin Phoenix, Jeremy RennerIf there's anyone that loves James Gray more than The Playlist, it's the French. While the filmmaker's cult is still growing stateside, Cannes took him into their hearts long ago, with all of his last three pictures playing in competition at the festival. While there was initially some talk that Gray would have "Lowlife" ready for Venice or TIFF last year, it didn't come to pass, and he told us late last year that he's hoping for the film to premiere at Cannes in 2013. Given how fond the organizers are of his previous work, we think this is a good one to bet on.

"Inside Llewyn Davis" (dir. Joel & Ethan Coen)Cast: Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, Garret Hedlund, John GoodmanThe Coens are fairly frequent Cannes-goers, with some success ("Fargo," Palme d'Or winner "Barton Fink," "No Country For Old Men") and some disappointments ("The Ladykillers"). Word from an early screening in February has created tremendous buzz for "Inside Llewyn Davis," and Deadline has already pegged it as a possible in competition film this year. It'd make perfect sense for the film to get a "Moonrise Kingdom"/"Midnight In Paris"-style boost with a summer release following soon after, so keep an eye out to see if CBS Films announce a release date sooner rather than later.

"A Field In England" (dir. Ben Wheatley) Cast: Reece Shearsmith, Michael Smiley, Julian Barratt, Ryan PopeBen Wheatley's reputation grows every time he comes up with a new film, and while his gory, pitch-black comedy "Sightseers" might have seemed like an unlikely Cannes entry, it proved to be one of the best-reviewed films of the festival when it premiered in the Directors' Fortnight sidebar last year. His latest, the psychedelic English Civil War tale "A Field In England," is already finished, and now that he's broken down the wall to Cannes, there's every reason to think he'll be back, only this time in the festival proper. A slot in the Un Certain Regard section seems like a better bet than the main competition, but you never know.

"The Past" (dir. Asghar Farhadi) Cast: Tahar Rahim, Bérénice Bejo, Babak KarimiUnlike many of the filmmakers we're pretty sure are heading to Cannes, Asghar Farhadi would be a first timer on the Croisette as the Iranian filmmaker's breakthroughs "About Elly" and "A Separation" both premiered at Berlin in 2009 and 2011, respectively. But "The Past" wasn't in the Berlin lineup last month (in fairness, it probably wasn't ready in time), but given that it's set in Paris, featuring previous Cannes darlings Tahar Rahim and Bérénice Bejo, this feels like a natural fit, and would be a real coup for the festival.

"Jimmy Picard" (dir. Arnaud Desplechin) Cast: Benicio Del Toro, Mathieu Amalric, Gina McKee, Elya BaskinThough not linked to the festival in the imagination of cinephiles the same way as someone like Michael Haneke, French helmer Arnaud Desplechin is a regular at Cannes. Both his short and feature debuts, "La Vie des morts" and "La Sentinelle," premiered on the Croisette in the early 1990s, and all of his films, bar 2004's "Kings and Queen," have played the fest, with 2008's "A Christmas Tale" being the most recent. He's making his second English-language film with based-in-fact tale "Jimmy Picard," and is bringing some star power with him in the shape of Benicio Del Toro and Mathieu Amalric, so this seems like an obvious one for inclusion.

"Real" (dir. Kiyoshi Kurosawa) Cast: Takeru Sato, Haruka Ayase, Kyoko KoizmiWhile his non-genre film "Tokyo Sonata" won him new fans back in 2008, horror maestro Kiyoshi Kurosawa has mostly been absent from the screen since then, with last year's five-part TV miniseries "Penance" being his only major work in between. But Kurosawa's back on the big screen, and back to genre work with "Real," about a man trying to release his lover from a coma by entering her subconscious. It sounds like it could be the right blend of the fantastical and the dramatic to get in the lineup, and with the filmmaker having taken the top prize in Un Certain Regard for "Tokyo Sonata," it seems likely that the festival could ask him back for the main competition this time, especially with the film set to open in Japan on June 1st, just a few weeks after Cannes.